Adsorbate interactions on surface lead to a flattened Sabatier volcano plot in reduction of oxygen

► We propose a microkinetic model of oxygen reduction with adsorbate interactions. ► It outputs similar steady-state reaction rates on Pt (1 1 1) and (1 0 0) surfaces. ► It explains why surfaces with different adsorption strengths have similar activities. ► Adsorbate interactions reduce sensitivities of activities to material energetics. ► It provides a systematic method to quantitatively investigate sensitivities of surface reactions when mean-field approximation is reasonable.